Testing Remains Critical to Contain Pandemic, Testing Options Expand
COVID-19 testing in the Humboldt County Public Health Laboratory. [Photo from the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services]
Humboldt County’s COVID-19 case rate is on an upward trend, and local health officials urge all community residents to get tested if they are experiencing symptoms and note that testing options have expanded to additional locations across the North Coast.
Humboldt County Public Health Director Michele Stephens said that even with progress in the county’s vaccination efforts, there are still a large number of residents who are not vaccinated and have no immunity at all against this virus.
“Testing is a crucial component of containing positive cases before they have a chance to spread so we can move past this pandemic,” Stephens said. “Here in Humboldt, we are fortunate to have lots of convenient and free testing options available to residents. Getting tested helps keep all of us safer, particularly those most vulnerable to severe disease.”
Individuals who are not fully vaccinated should be tested if they have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, have traveled out of state or have participated in higher risk activities such as attending large gatherings. Testing is now available in even more areas of the county.
No-cost testing is available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week through the OptumServe site at Redwood Acres located at 3750 Harris St. in Eureka. OptumServe’s mobile testing sites also offer testing in a different location of the county each weekday.
OptumServe testing locations:
- Arcata – Mondays, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Arcata Community Center, 321 M.L.K. Jr. Pkwy.)
- Garberville – Tuesdays, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (SoHum Health Sprowl Creek Campus, 286 Sprowl Creek Road)
- Fortuna – Wednesdays, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (River Lodge Conference Center, 1800 Riverwalk Dr.)
- Hoopa – Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Tsewenaldin Inn, 12482 CA-96)
- McKinleyville – Fridays, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Azalea Hall, 1620 Pickett Road).
To schedule, go to lhi.care/covidtesting, or call 888-634-1123.
After initially focusing on testing for facilities and a small number of tribal sites, the North Coast Testing Partnership (NCTP) is now expanding to include broad testing of tribal groups across Humboldt and Del Norte counties. This expansion is possible due to increased testing capacity at the NCTP laboratory and the completion of the online registration and reporting platform.
The partnership between the two counties and United Indian Health Services (UIHS) launched last year to provide a local COVID-19 testing option. While this is primarily intended for tribal populations, anyone can receive a test at one of the collection sites listed below.
Humboldt County NCTP testing locations:
- Bear River Rancheria – Tuesdays, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (266 Keisner Road, Loleta)
- Weitchpec Tribal Office – Every other Thursday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., (Hwy 96, Weitchpec)
- Trinidad – Every other Monday, 1 to 3 p.m., (foot of Bay St., Trinidad)
- Blue Lake Rancheria – Wednesdays, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (RV parking lot behind 777 Casino Way #777, Blue Lake)
- Orick – Every other Monday, 1 to 3 p.m., (120025 U. S. Hwy. 101, Orick)
Del Norte County NCTP testing locations:
- Crescent Elk Middle School – Thursdays, 3:30 to 5 p.m. (994 G St., Crescent City)
- Howonquet (Xaa-Wan’-K’wvt) Hall Community Center – Every other Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (101 Indian Ct., Smith River)
- Margaret Keating Elementary School – Tuesdays, 3:30 to 5 p.m., (300 Minot Creek Road, Klamath)
- Elk Valley Rancheria – Every other Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., (2332 Howland Hill Road, Crescent City)
Walk-ups are allowed at each testing site. To sign up for a test in advance and to learn more about NCTP, go to northcoasttestingpartnership.org.
Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines will also be offered by UIHS at some NCTP testing sites. These Mobile Vaccine clinics are walk-up and open to all residents age 18 and older. Available sites and dates are listed below.
UIHS Mobile Vaccine locations and schedule:
- Bear River Rancheria – Every other Tuesday beginning May 11, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (266 Keisner Road, Loleta)
- Weitchpec Tribal Office – Every other Thursday beginning May 20, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., (Hwy 96, Weitchpec)
- Trinidad – Every other Monday beginning May 17, 1 to 3 p.m., (foot of Bay St., Trinidad)
- Blue Lake Rancheria – Every other Wednesday beginning May 19, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (RV parking lot behind 777 Casino Way #777, Blue Lake)
- Orick – Every other Monday beginning May 10, 1 to 3 p.m., (120025 U. S. Hwy. 101, Orick)
For the most recent COVID-19 information, visit cdc.gov or cdph.ca.gov. Local information is available at humboldtgov.org or by contacting [email protected] or calling 707-441-5000.
Sign up for COVID-19 vaccination: MyTurn.ca.gov
Check for vaccine availability at a local pharmacy: Vaccines.gov
Local COVID-19 vaccine information: humboldtgov.org/VaccineInfo
Humboldt County COVID-19 Data Dashboard: humboldtgov.org/Dashboard
Follow us on Facebook: @HumCoCOVID19
Instagram: @HumCoCOVID19
Twitter: @HumCoCOVID19
Humboldt Health Alert: humboldtgov.org/HumboldtHealthAlert
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88,000 tests in over a year in a population of about 135,000 people. That’s about 65% of the people have been tested unless of course some of those people have been tested more than once. These numbers are nothing to bragg about.
A lot of people are required to be tested weekly for their employment. Some every other week. I’m sure there are more people not tested than tested in this county.
Many people tested even though they didn’t want to be tested, can you imagine the false positive rate. Especially with so little training.
YOU can and do imagine the false positive rate
Good point Lone Ranger. A bit off Fog.
“Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive. Maybe It Shouldn’t Be.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testing.html
“How the Unscientific Interpretation of RT-PCR & Rapid
Antigen Test Results is Causing Misleading Spikes in
Cases & Deaths.”
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15sCz8WpCNkEZGtrXV-nr4fwjwA34zc9g/view
“International experts suggest that up to 90% COVID cases could be false positives.”
https://westphaliantimes.com/international-experts-suggest-that-up-to-90-of-canadian-covid-cases-could-be-false-positives/
“The Trouble With PCR Tests.”
https://swprs.org/the-trouble-with-pcr-tests/#https://swprs.org/the-trouble-with-pcr-tests/
Stop posting claptrap from people’s cloud accounts. It’s dangerous. But then again the constant posting of anti vaxxer claptrap is also dangerous. And you misinterpret 90% of what you post. The article from the NYTs is complaining that the PCR test is “too sensitive” and “too slow” to be a good public health tool as it catches people who are no longer contagious and advocates for wider rapid testing of asymptomatic people . Not that PCR is inaccurate but simply gives responses too slowly, too late and too few people can be accomodated with testing.
And apparently chronic mask usage is linked to higher positive test results.
More hmmm.
A significant portion of tests are weekly ones for healthcare employees and similar jobs. Many people also get tested multiple times because there may be multiple exposures in their workplaces, because they’ve been sick multiple times with non-covid illnesses but got tested each time to be safe, etc.
As a note, the people being tested weekly for work are extremely strong evidence that the false positive rate is very, very low.
How do you figure, I have family in health care and workers get a positive one day, and then it is routine to test them again after 3 days go by. Most retest negative, and why set up this protocol if they think false positives are rare. Only people that don’t get retested are non workers ,they good calling them positive with no retest. What a joke.
I agree, lots of high-exposure workers are tested weekly.
For the Gen-Pop, testing when having no symptoms is a huge waste of resources… The County wants you to test, so that the Lab Staff will have enough to do, and so that the county can “generate stats” for the state… Also, the County bills the state for services. And, the circle goes around…
COVID is characterized by the futility of the government’s response… Ordering everybody to wear “face rags” is just insane, since the average person has no concept of how to limit infection, and has so little contact with others…
“Hand Sanitizers” are perfectly useless against viruses, and, frequent testing is a failure, since nobody wanted to work as a contact tracer in the few positive cases that are found…
The folks that are saying that we won’t reach “herd immunity” are the ones who want masking to continue forever… Meanwhile, the economy is red-hot with inflation, a “shortage mentality” has everyone paying too much for nearly everything, and now, the Fed states that a “crash is coming”, since the economy is “overheated”…
We are, apparently, doomed, and, our government is completely incompetent!
Why is there inflation? Because the government “printed” 6 Trillion Dollars!
So, if you DO survive the epidemic, you will soon need to survive the worst recession since money was invented!
Best thing to do, stop buying EVERYTHING! Don’t buy that house in Hawaii! Don’t get a new truck! Put all your money in an “investment savings account”, or just a regular savings account, then tuck your head between your legs and kiss life as we know it goodbye…
And: Have a lovely weekend!
Part of the push for testing asymptomatic, unexposed people is the state using the positivity rate as a factor in deciding what counties can do. I can see some of the logic for this – a low positivity rate indicates we have sufficient testing capabilities and aren’t only using them for severe cases, and since many people are tested routinely, it provides an approximation of prevalence in the general community – but it also creates a non-health incentive to run more tests. Testing people who have been exposed, traveled, or attended potential superspreader events, however, is an important part of limiting spread. The press release only suggests these people, and those with symptoms, be tested.
The average person has quite a bit of contact with others. They go shopping, they see their family, etc, even if they eliminate social gatherings. Advice on how to limit infection has been quite widely published.
Research says hand sanitizer kills viruses. Here’s a literature review specifically looking for stuff relevant to covid:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7301780/
The only time we were running out of contact tracing capability was at the worst peak. Clearly a sufficient number of people want to work as contact tracers.
As far as I’ve seen, no one, anywhere, for any reason, wants masking to continue forever. Every person, on every part of the political spectrum, would like covid to hurry the fuck up and go away. Only conspiracy theorists would claim otherwise.
There was a bit of a bubble before covid. I’m not an economist, and won’t speculate on the fine details of macroeconomics, due to insufficient knowledge to spot more than the most obvious bullshit.
The government didn’t print 6 trillion dollars. That’s obvious bullshit that I can spot. If you really want to look at where money magically appears, fractional reserve banking is a miracle.
The pandemic would have resulted in a recession without government stimulus efforts. I’m sure a lot of competent people are trying to figure out the fine line of how much to stimulate the economy.
Best thing to do, go buy everything you can… made in USA. Not just by an american-sounding brand name. Keeping money flowing around the country keeps the economy going. Hoarding money, or sending it to china, does not.
I am enjoying your point of view, but we are speeding downhill, with a totally incompetent bunch at the wheel…
A “normal” recession would be disastrous, homeless folks everywhere already, and, money isn’t “printed”, it exists in cyberspace… The gov’t waved a wand, and then handed out 6 trillion$…
Go try to buy anything at all! A used pickup? Gone up $30%, and the dealer won’t budge… No foreign goods are available, due to a “shortage”, from Bosch Dishwashers to new Hondas, which, incidentally, are built in America by a mostly Hispanic workforce…
The builders aren’t building anything except apartments for the techies in Burlingame and Brisbane…
Looked at a house lately? Homes in rural areas have shot up 35% in a year! Eureka, Yuba City and Vallejo are on the list of “hottest markets in the US!”
Check it yourself!
I paid $150/sq ft for my home in 2013, now it’s worth $300? Holy shit!
The world is going crazy, dude, so try climbing out of your rig, occasionally, down in Tulare or Modesto or Los Banos…
Reading the internet to study COVID, will result in a gross amount of misinformation, and NOBODY in any level of government has ANY idea what to do next…
Namaste, BT, be well….
Housing bubbles happen.
Time for you to sell!
Good time to sell, terrible time to buy…
“The average sale price of a single-family home in California hit a record $758,990 in March, a 23.9% increase from a year ago.”
I have a paid-off house, in the valley, that cost $79,000 in 1988. The house next door to it just sold for $300,000, and it’s basically a shack on a lot…
I can’t sell it cause I’m afraid I will need it, after the house I live in gets burned down… Drought emergency is being declared, so water your pot and grapes now… It’s going to get rather dry.
Testing for COVID with PCR, meanwhile, is ridiculous, kind of like looking for gold with an atom bomb…
The testing companies are getting wealthy, like Quest Diagnostics, for instance, but it just isn’t necessary…
We are in a panic economy, and your money, if you have any, is now worth 35% less. Be cognizant!
I’m putting all my extra cash into Gamestop (GME) shares. It is going to make a lotta people rich when it squeezes. I plan on being one of them. It will be the beginning of the end of the corrupt and unfair stockmarket that continues to feed the rich all of our hard-earned money.
🦍💎👐
Should be OK as long as you hodl.
does it, though?
How many were tested in 2018 for the flu? What if we would have tested like this? So many questions, that no one can answer.
Truth is, they drained social security and pension funds, and the old are lingering on these days. So, they create a virus that targets the old, and presto, problem solved. Testing, masking and vaccines are merely foolish exercises that are making a small group very very wealthy
Stimulate the economy with inheritance, and cut government social security spending, sounds like a politicians fantasy. Ole Joe raking it in, now just got to find some program that will funnel that surplus to a relative.
Always at least 10% for “the Big Guy”.
Yep, I love plants, sounds about right, brave new world.
We could have tested everyone in 2018 for the flu, and none of them would have died of covid.
But why weren’t we locked down for covid 1-18?
Because there was no pandemic in 2001 -2018?
Uh, swine flu? Avian flu? Weren’t those pandemics?
But they aren’t sars2 variants called “covid”. So no 2001-2018 designations..
Flu is not covid. The word Covid comes from corona virus (co-vi) disease. The 19 comes from 2019, not iteration of number of previous civics. Flu is from influenza virus. I suppose there could have been FluViD- 2009, if scientist at WHO had been in the mood to name it. But they weren’t.
“Testing remains critical…”
Can’t keep this deception going without those “tests”.
Can’t build an arsenal of new more powerful viruses, without those tests.
I often wonder about DNA collection.
have you no shame for your “journalistic” contribution? you & the other media outlets here are the problem.
Keep pretending there is no other narrative-
https://news.yahoo.com/cdc-drops-controversial-testing-advice-172703335.html
That is confusing. The advice in the link that was controversial was back when the CDC said there was no need to get tested unless they had symptoms. They changed it to that anyone who has been within 6 feet of someone infected for 15 minutes needs to be tested. And that has nothing to do with the idea of mass testing as a check on the city’s spread.
So what’s the problem?
People do research you know? I cannot even read your reporting on this topic, it is so insulting to people who seek & know the truth.
Why must be led by unlawful criminals & lousy reporting here? what a let down for Humboldt county, we totally deserve better.
These tests are bunk & most people know it. https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-08-27/states-say-they-wont-follow-cdcs-controversial-new-coronavirus-testing-guidelines
If you don’t like the reporting here, feel free to leave.
Somehow, no evidence of the tests being bunk had been presented yet, and instead every study seems to show they work great.
Right on Dianna.
The “testing” is worthless and based in bs, as much as Bushy doesn’t like all the evidence showing such.
I haven’t seen the #’s change in Trinity for months (although I’m not really keeping track). Not a whole lot of testing apparently.
Just one of many:
“How the Unscientific Interpretation of RT-PCR & Rapid
Antigen Test Results is Causing Misleading Spikes in
Cases & Deaths”
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15sCz8WpCNkEZGtrXV-nr4fwjwA34zc9g/view
Do you ever vet any “research” before posting it? That is a link to a letter supposedly written to a government official by an anti vaxxer group with all of 600 followers on YouTube. It is not even published document but a link to a cloud account. And is nothing but a re-use of every anti vaxxer call trap ever written. I just hope I didn’t import a computer virus when I opened it.
Kym maybe would find that too risky to allow.